Wallace & Gromit are featuring in a new npower advert, with a brand new money making scheme!
The advert sees the duo cashing in on the 2018 World Cup with a new pie-making venture...named ‘WAGS Pies Ltd’!

We see Wallace using his newest invention, a pie-pelting machine for easy pie-delivery to hungry footy fans. The machine quickly get out of control though, in typical Wallace fashion, leaving Gromit to save the day and chase a run-away pie.

While Gromit reaches to catch the wayward pie he accidently hits the football causing a goal, which mirrors Maradona’s ‘hand of god’ goal in 1986, that saw England knocked out of the World Cup. The papers the next day feature our trusty canine, the headline reading ‘Hand of Dog’!

The advert took 3 ½ weeks to shoot and includes special effects, added in post-production, to complement the stop-motion animation the pair are famous for. Here are a few fun facts about it’s making...

Fun Facts

• The team colours were blue & white and red & white to reflect the colours in the new npower logo. The crowd features supporters of both teams to show a harmonious atmosphere.
• The pitch was made by painting towel fabric. This created a great replica of turf on a football pitch.
• The newspaper that Gromit is reading in the final shot has articles which mention npower staff, agency personnel and Aardman crew.
• The initial stadium shot was used by shooting a miniature stadium with several streets dressed onto the set. These were then duplicated in post production to create a whole environment. Several elements were added in post production to make the shot “come alive”. These included adding players, a crowd, camera flashes, clouds and flags as well as moving traffic.
• The pie machine, built by John Wright Modelmaking, has been dressed to make it look as if it’s been built by Wallace and has been used already, which makes it fit into their world better. It features a “special delivery” barrel, slots for the pie tins to shoot out of (as if they are shot cartridges), magazines full of pies, and a scope to seek out customers.
• The shot that features Bob waving to Wallace was created by mixing stop motion animation of the characters, then adding a “scope” effect with crosshairs in CGI. The camera move and focus pull were also completed in post production.
• The shot of Gromit sliding down the rails was produced by compositing several layers together. These included the primary animation of Gromit, together with several layers of crowd characters and the stadium in the background
• The animation of Gromit catching the pie/ knocking the ball was shot and edited using a mixture of normal speed and slow motion.

I wish I got these in US, there would be a reason to watch t.v. here, lol. Infact, ive only seen one clay commercial since 2007, and a wile bak my mom was flipping through channels and I saw a lion talking, i think it was aardman...................... Well im gonna click on the link........